Hell's Bells! It's Helles Belles! A light lager from a brewery where I live. Come on in and enjoy a hyper-local brew on Beer Saturday!
A New Beer
Helles Belles has only been available since 2016, when Ninkasi Brewing added it to their year-round lineup. With a name like Helles Belles and that label, I've wanted to try this beer for awhile. I should have read the label a little closer. And done my beer research beforehand! I'm not saying this is a bad beer - I'm saying it's a specific kind of beer. Let's take a look!
A Munich Helles Lager
Helles Belles is a Munich-style Helles Lager. So it's not meant to have the strong flavors of an ale. It's supposed to be light in flavor and color. As one of the Ninkasi brewers said to our local newspaper, about lagers,
their delicate flavors leave nothing for a brewer to hide behind.
The marketing line for Helles Belles is "A beer for the masses". Ninkasi likes to define their beers using music - and they say this beer is straight up rock and roll. They even have a music playlist to go with this beer on their website! Listen to that playlist and you'll know what to expect from this light lager! While I'm laying out the beer details, see if you can put the clues together about what this beer is like.
Details
Helles Belles is brewed in a traditional style with just malts, hops, yeast, and water. The brewing uses German Hallertau Herkules and Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hops, along with some US Hallertau.
How's It Taste?
I chose this beer to go with a salad that I made for the Steemit Iron Chef contest run by @progressivechef. The salad is salty, smoky, peppery, and just a little sweet from some Gingko biloba nuts that I foraged. It calls out for a beer! Did I choose right? Have you guessed what this Helles Belles beer is like?
It turns out -- this is a beer for drinkin'. A lot, without considering the beer. Just drink. Turn up the music, party on, and drink. Frothy head? Not really, and it doesn't last long. That would get in the way of the drinkin'. It doesn't have much body or deep flavor. It's a super simple beer - don't let the flavor or appreciation of any complexity get in the way of the drinkin'! Bottom line? It tastes like Coors to me.
I'm not saying it's a bad beer. There are many worse beers out there. I'm just saying it's not my style of beer. I'm sure it will taste better as a summer brew, when it's 100F out there, and I can serve this super cold. That's when and how my grandmother enjoyed her half-glass of Busch -- another light lager for the masses --when she was in her 90s.
Winners of Last Week's Contest
Last week, I had a joke contest in my review of another Oregon beer, Session Premium Lager from Full Sail Brewing. I wanted a joke about loggers and lagers. Thanks to folks that contributed their humor! There was a tie for the 1 SBD prize! So I've sent 1 SBD to @improv for the logger-lager jokes with zombies and to @ddschteinn for the timber faller-logger-lager joke. It takes a forester to make that joke! I'll have more contests in future Beer Saturday posts, too - so stay tuned!
What Do You Think?
- Have you ever had a Ninkasi Helles Belles Helles Lager?
- Have you seen any Ninkasi beer in your local stores?
- Do you like Coors?
- What's your favorite style of beer?
My other beer reviews: Session Premium Lager // Pray for Snow Winter Ale
